XK Owner, What Is Your Age?
#41
06-07-2011, 05:21 PM
Veteran Member
I too thought I was going to be the oldest at 67 which just doesn't feel as old as I thought it would. Gave myself the XK8 for a 65th birthday present, a little early. Still ride big motorcycles, still restoring old cars. We will just have to see which is the fastest, the XK8 or the Ford V8 powered Volvo restoration that will come back to life this summer.
#43
06-07-2011, 07:14 PM
#45
06-07-2011, 09:17 PM
#46
06-07-2011, 09:18 PM
#47
06-08-2011, 02:17 AM
Veteran Member
EZDriver! I had no idea that you were a fellow homebuilt aircraft enthusiast! I have built a few planes myself, although never a Long EZ. I built a Quickie Q2, which is another Rutan design, but I didn't finish it. I got 90% done and realized that I still had 50% of the work ahead of me. Hundreds of hours of sanding and filling is not my idea of a good time. I just didn't have the patience. I completed the airframe but when it took me 50 hours to fill and sand just the rudder, I realized that composite airplanes weren't my thing. I sold it to someone with more free time. Here's a pic before I sold it. The top pic is the actual plane, the bottom pic is what it was supposed to look like when it was finished. (and no... it didn't sit out in my back yard. I couldn't put it together in my garage, so about once a month I would pull it out, screw the tail onto the forward fuselage, sit in it, and make airplane noises.)
About six years ago I was flying my Quicksilver ultralight low over some trees and the engine failed. I went into the trees and ended up in the hospital with a broken back. I haven't done much flying since then, but lately I've been getting the bug. I've never got up to mach 3.2, but one time I did hit mach 0.26 in a Cherokee 140 (I was in a steep dive
)
About six years ago I was flying my Quicksilver ultralight low over some trees and the engine failed. I went into the trees and ended up in the hospital with a broken back. I haven't done much flying since then, but lately I've been getting the bug. I've never got up to mach 3.2, but one time I did hit mach 0.26 in a Cherokee 140 (I was in a steep dive
)
#49
06-08-2011, 10:39 AM
I am 64, but nobody believes it. I contend that owning really fun cars has contributed greatly to keeping me both looking and feeling young.
For you Fly-Guys, I have spent many hours gawking at the Blackbirds in museums and have sat in a flight deck mock-up. Cozy. I also got to sit in the right seat on a Concorde during an engine run for maintenance, but never left the ground, so I'm still just a sub-sonic mortal. I have a friend who built a Varieze - really sweet airplane, and I expect the Long-EZ is even nicer. I rode a Cessna 150 down through 100 foot tall fir trees one week before my youngest daughter was born (walked away) and decided, with help from my wife, that flying was something I needed to postpone for a while. Loved it, but never really got back into it. I work for Boeing, and one of the neatest things I've ever done was participate in their "Executive Training Program". I got to spend a month in the flight-training classrooms and simulators learning to fly a 767. Former Space Shuttle Commander John Creighton was one of my instructors. What a blast! I still can't believe they actually PAID me to do that. Before 9/11/2001, I occasionally got to ride jump seat on commercial flights too, but alas, those days are over.
Totally love the Forum, and can see that the age distribution is one of the reasons it works so well.
Cheers,
For you Fly-Guys, I have spent many hours gawking at the Blackbirds in museums and have sat in a flight deck mock-up. Cozy. I also got to sit in the right seat on a Concorde during an engine run for maintenance, but never left the ground, so I'm still just a sub-sonic mortal. I have a friend who built a Varieze - really sweet airplane, and I expect the Long-EZ is even nicer. I rode a Cessna 150 down through 100 foot tall fir trees one week before my youngest daughter was born (walked away) and decided, with help from my wife, that flying was something I needed to postpone for a while. Loved it, but never really got back into it. I work for Boeing, and one of the neatest things I've ever done was participate in their "Executive Training Program". I got to spend a month in the flight-training classrooms and simulators learning to fly a 767. Former Space Shuttle Commander John Creighton was one of my instructors. What a blast! I still can't believe they actually PAID me to do that. Before 9/11/2001, I occasionally got to ride jump seat on commercial flights too, but alas, those days are over.
Totally love the Forum, and can see that the age distribution is one of the reasons it works so well.
Cheers,
#54
06-08-2011, 03:07 PM
75 and 3/4 (almost 76 - EZDRIVER)
I bought a 2004 BRG XK8 Convertible about 2 1/2 years ago. For about thirty years, I had been forecasting to my children that I was going to get a BRG Jaguar Convertible. To my children it was Dad's joke, but the time was right, as was the mileage and the price. I couldn't be happier. It is a beautiful car, and I think you all know how many approving glances a car like that gets.
My first car was a 1958 Volkswagen, followed by three Oldsmobile stationwagons and then three Volvo stationwagons. My friends are convinced that my driving this Jaguar is evidence of a bipolar problem. I think they're jealous.
I bought a 2004 BRG XK8 Convertible about 2 1/2 years ago. For about thirty years, I had been forecasting to my children that I was going to get a BRG Jaguar Convertible. To my children it was Dad's joke, but the time was right, as was the mileage and the price. I couldn't be happier. It is a beautiful car, and I think you all know how many approving glances a car like that gets.
My first car was a 1958 Volkswagen, followed by three Oldsmobile stationwagons and then three Volvo stationwagons. My friends are convinced that my driving this Jaguar is evidence of a bipolar problem. I think they're jealous.
#60
06-09-2011, 12:01 AM
Veteran Member
58 and counting
58 and bought my 2002 XKR about a year ago. Too good a deal to pass up for as much car as I got. (Can't buy a 5 year old Toyota Camry for what I bought a mint condition XKR). Still do crazy things like go racing a few times a year in my Pantera. I love the design of older sports cars and the XK series (previous generation) seemed to me to be classic like the XKE. My other cars include: 1968 Pontiac GTO (undergoing restoration), 1978 Datsun 280z (owned since new and mildly restored), 1958 Corvette (undergoing total body off restoration), and the previously mentioned 1972 De Tomaso Pantera (restored). The daily drivers are the XKR, Buick Enclave, and Chrysler Pacifica. As annoying as all of the little electronic glitches and the leaking hydraulic fluid from the conv. hoses are, since getting the XKR, I have rarely been back to driving any of the daily drivers. XKR is my first convertible, and the top is down everyday in the southern California sunshine. How did I go this long without one?